01.01.70

You don’t have to reach the peak to achieve great heights

I’d been climbing this mountain for four days already, and I wasn’t going to give up.

It was 1am, below freezing and it really felt as if I could die (or at least lose a finger or two to frostbite). I couldn’t stop wheezing.

My nose was running down my upper lip, then freezing instantaneously, making my skin raw.

My lungs didn’t feel as though they were inflating, and each breath was painful – like knives stabbing my insides.

With every step, I became increasingly worried— but I wasn’t going to give up. I was going to reach the peak of Kilimanjaro.

I’d planned this trip ten years ago in a quick conversation with my best friend, who was surprised and fascinated that my mother was born in Moshi, base camp Kilimanjaro.

Over the years, we’d spoken intermittently about attempting the climb, but it wasn’t until this past January that I broached the subject again.

Source: The Express Tribune

by Moosie

I live about a mile up (not the Mile High City), which means everything boils sooner, the air is thinner, and ski resorts are only a few miles away. So, in order to create delectable candies, you have to do a little converting of the recipe. The table gives you both the stage name and the temperature range. However you choose to do it, keep an keep on your boiling sugar.

Source: Been There, Pinned That: High Altitude Candy-making Conversion

by Vee

Our family loves homemade candy, so once again making candy was my seasonal challenge. After six years of trying to figure out candy making in Colorado using the old-fashioned cold water testing method, I decided to purchase a very nice (interpret pricey) candy thermometer. The first batch of fudge cooked to “soft ball” stage on said designer thermometer proved to be a dismal failure. Both humidity and altitude affect candy making. To prevent excessive water evaporation during the cooking of sugar mixtures at [high] altitude[s], cook to a ‘finish’ temperature that is lower than that given in sea-level recipes. If you use a candy thermometer, first test the temperature at which your water boils, then reduce the finish temperature by the difference between the temperature of your boiling water and 212 degrees. This is an approximate decrease of two degrees F for every increase of 1,000 feet in elevation. You may also use the cold-water test, which is reliable at any...

Read more...